2006

This is the game that saved the series and changed the basketball world's understanding of who Dwyane Wade was. Down 13 points in the fourth quarter, Miami — fueled by a home crowd that refused to accept elimination — staged one of the great comebacks in Finals history. Wade took over completely: attacking every possession, drawing fouls with a relentlessness that made Dallas's defense look helpless, making the decisive plays in overtime that converted a likely 0–3 series deficit into a 1–2 hole that suddenly felt manageable. His final line — 42 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists — does not capture the quality of the pressure under which those numbers were produced. The series was alive. Miami's arena had given the team something it could carry to Dallas.

Game 4 was the game where the series' momentum became visible as a physical force. Dallas came to Miami with a 2–1 series lead and left down 2–2, having been demolished by 24 points in a game that was not particularly close despite the final score's apparent drama. Wade's 36 points came with a devastating efficiency — 12-of-22 shooting, 12-of-12 from the free throw line — and Dallas's defense began to display the specific quality of teams that are being broken psychologically. Every time Avery Johnson's scheme tried to stop Wade from reaching the paint, he found a different angle. Every time the scheme tried to force him left, he was right. Miami's home court roared from the opening tip and never relented. Two days after the series' turning point, the turning was complete.

The single greatest individual performance of the 2006 Finals and one of the greatest in any Finals in the modern era. Dallas, with its home crowd returning and the championship in its building, led by 2 points with 9.8 seconds remaining. Wade drove, converted a layup to tie. He was fouled. He made the free throw. Miami led by 1. Dallas inbounded with 1.9 seconds. The buzzer sounded. Wade's 43-point performance — delivered in a hostile arena, against a team that had been the Western Conference's best all season — produced the largest single-game swing of the series and gave Miami a 3–2 lead that the series would not survive. American Airlines Center was silent when it should have been celebrating. Dwyane Wade had driven through their best defense on the most important possession of the year.

Miami closed out their first NBA championship at home, in front of a crowd that had believed in this team since the third quarter of Game 3. Wade scored 36 points — his fourth game of 36 or more in the final four games of the series — and the Heat won by 3 in a game that was tighter than the score suggests. Dallas, to their credit, competed until the final buzzer: Nowitzki scored 29 in his last game of the series. But the momentum that had shifted in overtime in Game 3 never shifted back. Pat Riley, who had left the front office midseason to coach a team he believed could win, stood at center court in his suit, trophy in hand. Shaquille O'Neal won his fourth championship. Gary Payton won his first and only. And Dwyane Wade, three years out of Marquette, had just played the greatest individual Finals in a generation.